Tor exit node

What a Tor exit node is

Tor routes your traffic through three volunteer-run relays. The first knows your address but not your destination, the middle knows neither, and the last, the exit node, opens the connection to the website on your behalf. The website sees the exit node's IP address. Because exits are the only relays that touch the open internet, the Tor Project publishes their addresses so that site operators can make their own decisions about them.

That list is public and updated continuously. We import it daily from the Tor Project and flag any address that appears on it.

Why it matters

Tor is excellent for anonymity and poor for looking like an ordinary user. Nearly every large website checks the exit list. Some block Tor outright; many serve CAPTCHAs on every page; most payment, marketplace, and account systems refuse sign-ups from an exit. Our anonymity score deducts 40 points for a Tor exit, the largest single deduction, because that reflects how sites treat it. An exit address also tends to accumulate blocklist entries from abuse that other users of the same exit committed.

For privacy, the trade-off is the reverse: Tor hides your real address from the site and hides the site from your ISP, which no commercial proxy or VPN does without asking you to trust the provider.

How to check

The proxy checker and IP lookup both show a Tor flag when the address is in the current exit list, together with the date of the list we are using. If you are connected through Tor Browser, the home page will show the exit as your address.

Common misconceptions

Tor exits are not all on datacenter networks; some run on residential or university connections, and those are still listed. Being on the exit list is not an accusation of wrongdoing, only a statement of fact about the address, but the practical effect on most websites is the same. And the list only covers exits: Tor bridges and middle relays are not public and are not flagged.